What’s New

Karl Weigl's Symphony No. 5 (1945), the "Apocalyptic," received its long-overdue and historic European premiere in January 2019

On 27 January 2019, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Karl Weigl's Symphony No. 5 received its European premiere performance with Thomas Sanderling and the Bruckner Orchester Linz in Linz Austria. To hear a radio broadcast of the performance tune in on 12 March to: https://oe1.orf.at/programm/20190312/546045.
The performance will be available there for seven days, until 19 March 2019.

New all-Weigl chamber music CD now available

This new all-Weigl recording (Capriccio C5318) features David Frühwirth, Benedict Kloeckner, and Florian Krumpöck performing Karl Weigl Weigl's Violin Sonata No. 2 in G Major (1937); Two Pieces for violin and piano (1942); Two Pieces for cello and piano op. 33 (1940); and the Piano Trio (1938–1939). The first two works were recorded in Berlin in 2012 in a coproduction with Deutschlandradio; the cello pieces and trio were recorded at the 2016 Kultur Sommer Semmering Festival. Liner notes by Jens F. Laurson were adapted from the chapter on Karl Weigl in the revised edition of Robert R. Reilly's Surprised by Beauty: A Listener's Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music (2016).

A recording of Karl Weigl's complete music for cello, including the world premiere performance of the 1934 Cello Concerto, is due for release this spring

In April 2017 Raphael Wallfisch and the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Milton, recorded Karl Weigl’s Cello Concerto in the hall of the Konzertaus. The work, composed in 1934, had never previously been performed.
One year later, in April 2018, Raphael Wallfisch recorded all of Weigl's other works for solo cello: with John York the Two Pieces for cello and piano and the Menuetto for cello and piaino, and with Edward Rushton the Cello Sonata. These recordings, with the engineer Adrian Farmer, took place in the Wyastone Concert Hall at Nimbus Studios in Wyastone, Wales.

Other new recordings in preparation include a set of the complete symphonies, nos. 1 – 6, performed by Jürgen Bruns and the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, to appear on the Capriccio label

The first in this series, of Symphony No. 1 in E Major op. 5 (1908) and the Pictures and Tales Suite for small orchestra op. 22 (1922), recorded in the Ludwigshafen Philharmonie in December 2018, will appear later this spring.

The second in the series, of Symphonies No. 4 and No. 6, will be recorded May 6–10, again in the Ludwigshafen Philharmonie.

Radio broadcast performances to access online

To listen to the European premiere performance of Karl Weigl's Symphony No. 5 in Linz, Austria, on this year's International Holocaust Day of Remembrance , tune in on 12 March (and seven days thereafter) to https://oe1.orf.at/programm/20190312/546045.

To listen to the 4 October 2018 musica reanimata concert with music by Karl and Vally Weigl (see Recent performances below) visit https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/musikszene.1721.de.html
and click on the Deutschlandfunk “Musikszene” program of 8 January 2019.

Coming live performances

Sunday, 2 June 2019, in Trieste, Italy, as part of rhis year's Viktor Ullman Festival, Davide Casali and the combined Orchestra "Abimà" and Civica Orchestra di Fiati "G. Verdi" will give the world premiere performance of Karl Weigl's Symphony No. 4 in F Minor (1936). More details as they become available.

Tuesday, 27 August 2019, in the Klimt Villa, Vienna, on the occasion of this year's Kammermusikfestival Klimt Villa, Anna-Marie Pamme and the Aron Quartet (Ludwig Müller, Barna Kobori, Georg Hamann and Christophe Pantillon) will perform Karl Weigl's Five Songs for soprano and string quartet. The Aron Quartet will also perform Vally Weigl's Adagietto for Strings, "To Emily." Also on the program: Arnold Schoenberg, String Quartet No. 2; and Antonin Dvorak, String Quartet in F Major op. 96, the "American."

Sunday, 1 September 2019, also during this year's Kammermusikfestival Klimt Villa, the Aron Quartet will perform the string quartet version of Vally Weigl's Andante for Strings (1945). Also on the program: Bruno Walter, String Quartet; and Dmitri Shostakovich, String Quartet No. 3 (1946).

For more information on Kammermusikfestival Klimt Villa, 26 August to 1 September 2019, see http://klimtvillafestival.at/index-deutsch.htm.

Recent performances

Thursday, 17 January 2019, in the Zunftsaal im Schmiedenhof, Basel, Switzerland, in the second concert of this year’s Mizmorim Festival, Wien um 1900, two of Karl Weigl’s Three Songs for mezzo-soprano (“Der Einsamste” and “Der Tag klingt ab”) will be performed by Anna Maria Pammer and Holger Groschopp. Also on the program: songs by Johannes Brahms, Karl Goldmark, Alexander Zemlinsky, Erich Zeisl, Egon Wellesz, and Arnold Schönberg

Saturday, 26 January 2019, in the Mittlerer Saal, Brucknerhaus Linz, Linz, Austria, an all-Weigl concert will present his String Quartet No. 4, Toteninsel for solo piano, String Quartet No. 6, and the first movement, Revelation, from Three Intermezzi for string quartet. Performers are the pianist Michael Korstick and the Serenus Quartett (Alexander Knaak, Michael Mayer-Freyholdt, Dorotha Funk, and Dita Lammerse). For more information see https://www.brucknerhaus.at/veranstaltungen/veranstaltungen/detail/karl-weigl-1177.html.

Sunday, 27 January 2019, in the Grosser Saal, Brucknerhaus Linz, Linz, Austria, a concert commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day brings a performance of Karl Weigl's Symphony No. 5, the Apocalyptic, with Thomas Sanderling and the Bruckner Orchester Linz; also on the program: shorter works by Arnold Schoenberg, Nathaniel Shilkret, Alexandre Tansman, Darius Milhaud, Mario Castelnuevo-Tedesco, Ernst Toch, and Igor Stravinsky.

Sunday, 27 January 2019, at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, in a concert dedicated to Varian Fry, mezzo-soprano Clotilde Van Diern, Philippe Graffin, Justus Grimm, and students of the Royal Conservatory perform Karl Weigl’s Ein Stelldichein; Philippe Graffin then leads students in Karl Weigl’s Rhapsody for string orchestra. Also on the program: Gustav Mahler’s Adagietto from Symphony No. 5; and Maurice Ravel’s Two Hebrew Melodies and Tzigane.

May 2019, in Trieste, Italy, Davide Casali, director of the annual Viktor Ullmann Festival, has scheduled the world premiere performance of of Karl Weigl's Symphony No. 4 as part of the festival. Further details as they become available.

Sunday, 2 December 2018, in the Kleine Zaal, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, the Alba Rosa Viva! Festival presented a performance of Karl Weigl’s Five Songs for soprano and string quartet with Sarah Wegener, soprano, and the Ruysdael Kwartet (Joris van Rijn, Emi Ohi Resnick, Gijs Kramers, and Jeroen den Herder). Also on the program: songs by Alma Mahler, Rosy Wertheim, Willem Jeths, Davies, and Gabriel Fauré. For more information see https://www.concertgebouw.nl/en/concerts/alba-rosa-viva-festival-grande-finale/02-12-2018.
To listen to the concert visit www.nporadio4.nl/avondconcert/uitzendingen/623155:2018-12-02-avondconcert (for the Weigl Five Songs move the slider to ca. :38).

Wednesday, 18 October 2018, at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York, the soprano Jeannie Im performed Karl Weigl's Five Songs for soprano and string quartet.

Thursday, 4 October 2018, at the Musikclub des Konzerthauses am Gendarmenmarkt, Berlin, musica reanimata in its Gesprächskonzert series Verfolgung und Wiederentdeckung presented a prgram titled "Neubeginn nach dem "Anschluss"? Das Musikerpaar Vally und Karl Weigl." The following works by the Weigls was performed and discussed by the cellist Friedemann Ludwig, the pianist Russell Ryan, the flutist Ulrike Anton, and the moderator Bettina Brand: Vally Weigl’s New England Suite for flute, cello, and piano; her Bird Song of Life for solo flute; and Karl Weigl’s Cello Sonata as well as Pictures from Childhood for flute and piano. For more information see www.konzerthaus.de/de/programm/musica-reanimata-gesprachskonzert/3301. To hear the event, which was recorded by Deutschlandfunk, visit https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/musikszene.1721.de.html
and click on the Deutschlandfunk “Musikszene” program of 8 January 2019.

Wednesday, 11 August 2018, in the Poselli Hall in Rauma, Finland, as concluding event of the Rauma Festivo 2018, Karl Weigl's Five Songs for soprano and string quartet were performed by Kajsa Dahlbäck and the Kamus Quartet (Terhi Paldanius, Jukka Untamala, Jussi Tuhkanen, and Petja Kainlainen). Also on the program: Luigi Boccherini, Guitar Quintet ”Fandango”; Leoš Janáček, Fairy Tale for cello and piano; Mozart, Duo for violin and viola No. 2, K. 424; Olli Mustonen, Guitar Sonata No. 2; Ralph Vaughan Williams, Along the Fields; and Richard Strauss, Prelude to Capriccio. For more information see http://raumafestivo.fi/tapahtuma/?event_id=184.

Friday, 27 July 2018, at the Caroga Lake Music Festival, New York, Jeanne Im performed Karl Weigl's Five Songs for soprano and string quartet. See https://composers.com/event/karl-weigls-five-songs-soprano-and-string-quartet-soprano-jeannie-im-caroga-lake-ny-july-27.

Sunday, 11 February 2018, and Sunday, 18 February 2018, in the Kammermusiksaal of the Berlin Philharmonie, Berlin, Germany, a program titled “Auf den Spuren von Lou Andreas-Salomé” presented a performance by Anna Maria Pammer and Cordelia Höfer of Karl Weigl’s “Der Einsamste” and “Der Tag klingt ab,” both on texts by Friedrich Nietzsche, from the Seven Songs op. 1. For more information see https://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/konzerte/kalender/details/51131/.

Friday, 26 January 2018, at the Royal Scottish Academy in Glasgow, Scotland, Raphael Wallfisch and John York performed Weigl’s Two Pieces for cello and Menuetto for cello. Also on the program: Brahms, Sonata op. 78 and Sonatensatz (both originally written for violin); and Kenneth Leighton, Alleia Pascha Nostrum for cello and piano op. 85.

New reprint edition

The American Composers Alliance (ACA) has issued a newly engraved edition (score and parts) of Karl Weigl’s Five Songs for soprano and string quartet. Performances of this work, which was premiered in March 1937 in Vienna, with Zoë Prasch-Formacher and the Kolbe Quartet, have always garnered glowing reviews. Elisabeth Schumann, too, performed the work to high acclaim, first with the Rosé Quartet (in Vienna) and then with the Brosa Quartet (in London).

Recent Karl Weigl recordings

Karl Weigl Ausgewählte Lieder / Selected Songs (Capriccio C5259), produced by Deutschlandradio Kultur, presents the soprano Sophie Klußmann, the pianist Oliver Triend, and soloists of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (Sebastian Breuninger and Clemens Linder, violin; Annemarie Moorcroft and Eve Wickert, viola; Mischa Meyer and Adele Bitter, cello) performing the following works by Karl Weigl: Five Songs from “Phantasus” for voice and piano op. 9 (1905); Five Songs for soprano and string quartet (1934); Three Songs for soprano and piano / Drei Mädchenlieder op. 12 (1909); Six Children’s Songs for voice and piano (1932–1934); Five Duets for soprano, baritone, and piano (1909); The Invisible Light for voice and piano (1939); and Rendezvous / Ein Stelldichein for voice and string sextet (1904).

Karl Weigl’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand and Violin Concerto (Capriccio C5049) features Florian Krumpöck and David Frühwirth in the two Weigl concerti, accompanied by the Norddeutsche Philharmonie under the baton of Manfred Hermann Lehner.

Both recordings come with notes by the British composer and writer Lloyd Moore (www.lloydmooremusic.co.uk).

Reissued Vally Weigl recording

The 1974 CRI recording of Vally Weigl's Nature Moods and New England Suite has been reissued on CD as part of an ongoing project at Composer's Recordings Inc. (CRI); the company is gradually transferring the original master tapes of their LP catalog to digital files and making CDs available on a print-on-demand basis. Weigl's Nature Moods is performed by George Shirley, tenor; Stanley Drucker, clarinet; and Kenneth Gordon, violin. The New England Suite is performed by Stanley Drucker, clarinet; Kermit Moore, cello; and Ilse Sass, piano.

Related events

Excerpts from Michael Haas's book Forbidden Music: The Jewish Composers Banned by the Nazis (Yale University Press), as well as many additional photographs and links, can be seen on www. facebook.com/forbiddenmusic; for material and discussions on Karl Weigl scroll down to the entries from 4–6 March 2014.

If you have news of a coming event, or would like to share something relating to Karl Weigl or Vally Weigl, we would gladly post your comments here. Please send your message to julie@karlweigl.org.